In the manufacture of vented filter tip cigarettes, it is know to position a double filter section in alignment with and between a pair of tobacco rod sections and to then adhesively attach to the assembly at the midsection, a tipping paper section, the assembly being carried around a drum past an arc-shaped shoe positioned adjacent to but spaced from the periphery of the drum in such manner that the unit is given a rolling action which wraps the tipping paper about the filter section and an overlapping connection at each side onto the respective cigarette rod sections. The assembly is then cut through at its midpoint resulting to provide a pair of filter tipped cigarettes.
Where a vented cigarette is desired, the assembly during the wrapping operation is brought into contact with needles which puncture venting holes in the wrapper. In one type of apparatus as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,701,353, a section of the assembly is rolled past a row of needle points appropriately located in the rolling shoe to provide a peripheral row of venting holes near the ultimate mouth end of the cigarette, i.e., in the filter of the respective cigarette structures, the perforating means comprising a series of pointed needles formed integrally in a strip member carried in the rolling shoe.